Circular-knitting machine



Feb. 12, 1929. I 1,701,851

H. E. HOUSEMAN CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE Filed Aug. 12, 1927 Arm/ms ya. I

Patented F eb. 12, 1929.,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HAROLD E. HOUSEMAN, F EDGE MOOB, DELAWARE, ASSIGNOR TO STANDARD-TRUMP BROS. MACHINE COMPANY, OF WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, A CORPORATION 01' DELAWARE.

CIRCULAR-KNITTING MACHINE.

Application filed August 12, 1927. Serial No. 212,394.

A recent patent issued to me, dated June 7, 1927, No. 1,631,817, discloses a method whereby vertical stripes may bemade by means of special shouldered needles which 5 are distributed among. the regular needles. When the shoulders of these special needles engage the stitch-forming cam, the special needles are moved down in advance of the regular needles, and if a body yarn and a plating yarn are fed simultaneously to the needles and are spread apart, the shouldered needles will engage only the body yarn, the plating yarn being floated across the back of these needles, with the result that vertical stripes of body yarn only will be produced by these needles.

In an application for patent filed by me Nov. 12, 1926, Serial No. 147,889, I disclose means for producing figured effects, instead of plain vertical stripes, by the use of needles having shoulders of three different lengths, these shouldered needles being selectively engaged by the stitch cam, which is stepped in and out.

When it is desired, by this method, to form clocks, that is, vertical striped or figured effects on either side of the stocking, long shouldered needles are used except where the clocks are to be formed, and at these points combinations of regular needles having no shoulders, short shouldered needles and medium shouldered needles may be used in accordance with the clock pattern which is to be formed. The plating yarn or yarns which are used to form the clocks will be engaged by only theclocking needles and will extend in floats from one clock to the other.

It is important that these plating yarns shall be so controlled that they will never be engaged by any needles other than the clocking needles, whereas the body yarn must be in a position to be engaged by all of the needles.

The object of the present invention is to so control the plating yarns that, at all times, when in action and out of action they will be kept separate from the body yarn, as well as from other yarns, such as the one employed in the knitting of the heel and toe, and also to so guide them that they will be engaged only by the clocking needles.

To accomplish this, I inter-pose, between the yarn fingers and the clamping and cutting mechanism, a pivoted yarn separator which holds the clocking yarns away from the other yarns. This separator is only moved when one of the main yarns goes into or out of action, at which time it is raised to permit these yarns to occupy their normal position in the clamping and cutting device.

In the drawings, which show a preferred embodiment of my invention:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the top of the knitting machine, comprising principally the needles, the yarn guides, the clamp and cutter and their actuating mechanism, and the separator for separating the clocking yarn from the other yarns.

' Fig. 2 is a side view of the mechanism shown in Fig. 1, together with the divided stitch-forming cam; the needle cylinder and latch ring being shown in vertical section.

Fig. 3 shows the five yarn guides and the yarn feed opening in the latch ring with the separate paths which the' clocking needles and other needles-follow illustrated by dotted lines.

Slidable in slots in the needle cylinder a are the plain needles I) and the shouldered needles 0. These needles are lowered at the stitch-forming point by a twopart stitch cam comprising an upper mova le part (2 which overlaps a fixed lower portion e.

As explained fully in Patent No. 1,631,817, dated June 7, 1927, previously referred to, the fixed portion 6 sets far enough away from the needle cylinder to clear the longest shoulders of the shouldered needles, whereas the upper portion (Z is movable toward or away from the needle cylinder. If the cam (Z is moved out so that its face is nearly as far from the needle cylinder as the face of the fixed cam a, only the shoulders of the longest shouldered needles will engage the cam (Z and all needles having shoulders of shorter lengths will engage the cam (Z with their butts. In other words,.all needles with shoulders ofshorter length'will function the same as the unshouldered regular needles I) and their hooks will follow the higher knitting path indicated by dotted line w of Fig. 3, while the needles having the longest shoulders will be depressed sooner and their hooks will follow the path indicated by dotted line y. If shouldered needles are employed with shoulders of medium length, these shoulders may be engaged by stepping cam d further toward the needle cylinder, and if still other i I shouldered negdles are used having shoulders which project but slightly beyond the slots in the needle cylinder, these shortest shoulders tion, there isno necessity for describing it. It 1s suflicient to know that 1n making clocked stockings 1n this manner, it 1s necessary to feed aplating yarn so that it will be engaged by only the needles following the knitting wave :0 and to selectively cause the needles used for clocking to either follow this knitting wave a: or be depressed prematurely so as to follow the knitting wave 3 I The plating or clocking yarns, which may be of three different colors, are carried by the three yarn fingers 1, 2 and 3, Fig. 1, and the body yarn is carried by finger 5. Finger 4' may carry the-yarn used in knitting the heel and toe. If the color in the clocks to be formed is to be changed, it is necessary to change yarn. fingers numbered 1, 2 and 3, which carry these clocking yarns, from nonfeeding to feeding position, and vice versa.

This yarn changing is accomplished by supplementary pattern mechanism which com rises striping mechanism disclosedin a pen ing application for patent filed by me May 20, 1927 Serial No. 110,311. This application shows means for pushing downward on levers 6, 7 and 8, which, through connections with yarn fingers 1, 2 and 3, causes them to be lever v overhangs the clamp and cutter aclowered into knitting position and synchronously-therewith to operate lever 7 so that it will be rendered operative to push a depending arm g attachedv to a yoke lever h, pivoted at z', for the purpose of releasing, through certain connections, any one of the yarn fingers I a bracket m, which carries a plate a that sets" 1,2 or 3 which may have been down in operative position so'that it will be swung up into inoperative position, and simultaneously therewith to raise and lower the clamp and cutter actuating lever 'j, pivoted at is, by means of an extension on lever h, which acts on an adJusting screw Z carried by lever j.

Fastened to a fixed part of the machine is within the circle of needles, a movable clamp o, a fixed lower cutter blade 19 and a movable upper cutter blade 9. The clamp and cutter actuating lever j carries a piece 1' that serves to lift the clamp and movable cutter blade,

both of which are pivoted by means of projections 'oand g, respectively, so as to receive the yarn which is to be clamped and cut. When lever j is released, the clamp and cutter are actuated by their respective springs 8 and t to clamp and cut the yarn. The yarn is not only clamped between the movable clamp 0 and the plate n, but also between an immovable sup lementary clamp 10 and the plate n.

the yarns i'n fingers 1, 2 and 3 so that they will be separated from yarns in fingers 4 and 5 As be ore mentioned, it is necessary to hold and in such a position that they will be en-- 7 gaged only by the needles whose hooks follow the path w shown in Fig' 3. The means' for accomplishing this result consists of a separator lever '22, pivoted at 'w, the notched end 9 of which is .pressed against the plate 71. by the pull of spring 2. The yarns from fingers 1, 2 and 3 pass through the notch 9 and thence under the clamps 0 and u, and'are so positioned that when any one of them is moved down into engagement with the needles, it will be held close to the corner 10 of the yarn feed opening in the latch ring'l'l and will be engaged by only such needles as will follow the path w. These yarns will, therefore, not only be positioned prop'erly'whenthey go down into knitting relation with the clocking needles, but will be retained in that position when they are not being engaged by clocking needles. If this separating lever e was not employed, the plating yarns, in their extension from the fingers to the clamp and cutter, would more nearly occupy the positions indicated by the yarns shown in F1g.-1-1n their extension from fingers land 5,

with the result that when they were moved downward into active relation with the needles, they would engage needles at apomt far H from the corner10 illustrated in 3 and would be'caught by needles other than clock-1 ing needles, thereby making defects in the fabric.

An upward extending arm 12 of separator tuating lever j and carries an adjusting screw 13. When any one of fingers 1, 2 or 3 is moved mentary pattern mechanism beforemeninto or out of action, by means of the suppletioned, the clamp and cutter actuating lever 3' is first raised to release. the clocking-yarn going-into action and then is lowered to clamp and cut'the old yarn which is being withdrawn However, when yarns carried by fingersv l.

or 5 'are'moved into or out of action, they must not be engaged bv the notch 9, but must 'be permitted to freely pass between the sep arator lever 'vand plate a, so that when they ,are inactive, theywill occupy the positions indicated in Fig. 1.

When they areagain moved into action, as the result of being so positioned, they will be engaged by needles far from the corner 10 in Fig. 3, and will therefore be knitted by every needle.

Yarn fingers 4 and 5 may be actuated by mechanism disclosed in a patent dated No vember 23, 1915, No. 1,161,677, issued to me, these movements being taken from cams on a pattern disc 14. Simultaneously therewith the clamping and cutting mechanism is operated by means of a cam 15 carried by the pattern disc 14, which raises and then releases a. plunger 16 which in turn actuated lever y' through an adjusting screw 17 which is carried by lever j.

The screw 17 is so adjusted that when fingers 4 or 5 are actuated the operation of cam 15 raises the lever much higher than occurs when lever j is moved by lever f at the time when clocking yarn changes occur. This in creased elevation of lever causes it to contact with adjusting screw 13 of separator lever '22 and to lift the separator lever well above the plate n so that yarns carried by fingers 4 and 5 will escape engagement with the notch 9 and will assume their proper positions in the clamp and cutter.

In the foregoing description. I have referred to the yarns used for clocking as plating yarns because they are plated over the main or body yarn. It is common practice, however, to form the body of the stocking of a body yarn and a plating yarn both of which lead from the sameyarn finger, say finger 5. When this is done, both of these yarns lead far, enough from the corner 10 0t the yarn feed opening in the latch ring to be engaged at all times by every needle, and the clocking yarns have sufficient tension placed on them to cause them to plate over the main body yarn and the main plating arn.

Although I have herein specifically mentioned the formation of two plated panels or clocks, it is, of course, understood that three or more panels may be knit if desired merely by the insertion of special needles at other places in the needle circlei Having now fully described my invention, what I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. In a circular knitting machine, in combination, yarn fingers adapted to carry clocking yarns and main yarns respectively, primary pattern means adapted to actuate the main yarn fingers, secondary pattern means adapted to actuate the clocking yarn fingers, movable clamping and cutting means adapted to clamp and cut all of the yarns, a movable yarn separator interposed between the yarn fingers and the clamping and cutting means and adapted to separate the clocking yarns from the main yarns, and a lever, operable both by the primary pattern means and the secondary pattern means, adapted to actuate the clamping and cutting means and adapted, when operated by the primary pattern means,

to actuatethe yarn separator.

2. In acircular knitting machine, in com;

bination, yarn fingers, clamping and cutting mechanism, a yarn separator interposed between the yarn fingers and the clamping and cutting mechanism, means adapted to operate either the clamping and cutting mechanism alone or both the clamping and cutting mechanism and the separator, and pattern mechanisms adapted to effect either of the said modes of operation of said means.

3. In a circular knitting machine, in 'combination, yarn fingers, clamping and cutting mechanism, a yarn separator interposed between the yarn fingers and the clamping and cutting mechanism, means adapted to operate the clamping and cutting mechanism, difi'erent. pattern mechanisms adapted to impart difl'erential movements to said means, the separator being positioned to be operated by said means in one movement thereof and to escape operation by said means in the other movement thereof.

4. In a circular knitting machine, in combination, one or more yarn fingers carrying clocking yarns, one or more additional yarn fingers carrying main yarns, needles, means to prematurely lower certain of said needles at the stitch forming point, a yarn separator adapted to engage the clocking yarns and to so position-them that they will escape engagement with prematurely lowered needles, pattern controlled means for operating the yarn finger or fingers carrying clocking yarns, pattern controlled. means for operating the yarn finger or fingers carrying main yarns, and mechanism operable,'in the actuation of one pattern means, to operate the clamp and cutter alone and, in the actuation of the other pattern means, to operate the clamp and cutter and also so operate the separator as 'to'prevent engagement ofthe main yarn therewith.

5. In a circular knitting machine, in combination, yarn fingers, main yarn and other yarn carried by different fingers, regular needles and other needles adapted to follow separate knitting paths, a clamp and cutter, a yarn separator interposed between the yarn fingers and the clamp and cutter and adapted to separate said other yarn from the main yarn and to so position said other yarn that it will be engaged by said other needles only, pattern controlled means for operating the yarn finger carrying said other yarn, pattern controlled means for operating the yarn finger carrying main yarn, and mechanism operable,1n the actuatlon of one pattern means, 1

to operate the clamp and cutter and, in the actuation of the other pattern means, to operate the clamp and cutter and also so operate the separator as to prevent engagement of the main yarn therewith.

In testimony of which invention, I have vhereunto set my hand, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on this 10th day of August, 192?.

HAROLD E. HOUSEMANLQ, 

